Not Me Too!!

Editor: Having read of the case where a 58-year-old man in the United Kingdom had to register as a sex offender for making unwanted advances towards a female friend, I felt moved to express my views.

I must say that my attitude to this “Me too” movement is exactly like how I had felt about the “Arab Spring” nonsense – a great deal of empty hype, fuelled by social media without realistic, concrete plans for moving forward.

This “Me Too” thing debases legitimate cases of abuse and harassment AND presents women as though they are innocent, helpless paragons of virtue, with no sexual agency. In fact, this latter point speaks of a sexist, patriarchal attitude to women, which a number of these screamers are now buying into.

I know how I sound and I know the criticisms I’ll attract, but we all know that a number of these cases are consensual encounters gone awry, and I don’t accept the notion that even though there is consent, the woman is automatically the lesser agent and therefore disempowered.

Now “the law” has to “suck up” to seem as though it’s dispensing justice.

Annie Laurie

Editor’s note:

The writer is referring to a story published on March 8, 2018, in the Daily Mail, about the ex-company director who was talking to a woman about a swarm of wasps she had seen on the roof of a building, when he made a pass at her.

As the woman turned to look up at the nest, the man put his arm around her. The man, who has never even had a parking ticket, then kissed the startled woman on her shoulder, neck and back of her head.

She then pulled away from him, and he apologized for what he had done. The woman then reported the August 2016 incident to police and he was arrested. The man originally denied a charge of sexual assault, but changed his plea to guilty on the first day of his trial. He was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to sign up as a sex offender.